Pedantic Literalist

Prince Rupert's drop, paper muslin ghost,

    White torch— “with power to say unkind

Things with kindness, and the most

        Irritating things in the midst of love and

             Tears,” you invite destruction.

You are like the meditative man

    With the perfunctory heart; its

Carved cordiality ran

To and fro at first like an inlaid and royal

             Immutable production;

Then afterward “neglected to be

    Painful, deluding him with

Loitering formality,”

        “Doing its duty as if it did it not,”

             Presenting an obstruction

To the motive that it served. What stood

    Erect in you has withered. A

Little “palm-tree of turned wood”

        Informs your once spontaneous core in its

             Immutable production.